A user having an Internet connection and a browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer™, can access almost any type of desired information on the Internet or World Wide Web (WWW). A number of search tools, such as Google, are available to help users locate information of interest. While the Internet provides a valuable resource to most users, the experience can be very frustrating for visually impaired users.
Screen readers are available that read out the text of a web page to the user in a linear fashion. A web page, however, is often not designed to be easily displayed and used by both a web page for visual users, and people using a screen reader. A visually impaired often has to repeatedly listen to the same parts of a web page or the same flows of a website, making them very less productive than a visual user.
A number of techniques have been proposed or suggested for improving the browsing experience for visually impaired users. The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML 4.0) specification, for example, includes a number of techniques that can be employed by web page developers to better accommodate screen readers. For example, a “skip to content” link allows a visually impaired user to proceed directly to the page content, and thereby avoid hearing the same menu repeatedly as the user browses through multiple pages. The user must memorize the menu structures, and can often get lost, or have to go back and re-listen to the links to find what the user is looking for.
Where a visual user reads a web page from top to bottom and left to right and makes correlations visually, a visually impaired user must listen to a page in a linear form. For example, a label and an associated button on a web page can be easily correlated together for visual users. For the screen reader, however, a number of HTML tags and attributes must be used to associate the label and button together, so the screen reader can read the correct label for the associated elements.
A need exists for methods and apparatus for improving the presentation of content to visually impaired users. A further need exists for techniques for predicting the behavior of a visually impaired user on a web page and presenting the user with the content that is most likely of interest.